28 August 2018

With our increasing efforts in private sector development, we welcome on board four new staff members in our enterprising partnerships team (EPT). This team focuses on, for example, the set-up of co-working space, the (further) development of MDFs mobile application, developing new (financial) products and services with partners and improving the quality and availability of support and finance for private sector development. Our four new team members all bring in relevant expertise for this; as you can read below:

Dominic Owusu Ansah is a financial services specialist with experience in training services for a variety of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and financial institutions. He led financial services capacity building for USAID FinGAP, which facilitated $167 million of SME finance to rice, maize and soy value chains in northern Ghana. His training expertise is in value chain finance, microfinance operations, risk management, product development, portfolio analysis, and delinquency management to MFIs, cooperatives, and SMEs. Dominic holds an MSc in financial management and a BA in linguistics.

Ernest Aboagye is a business development expert in education policy, strategic planning and capacity building for SME’s with over a decade of experience in capacity building for public and private institutions, organisations and individuals. His focus is in the areas of education technologies, business development, governance & policy advocacy and WASH. Ernest holds a BSc. biological sciences and an MBA in finance.

Eric Awine Ayamga is a development finance specialist with focus on SME Development and job creation, micro franchising and enterprise growth, financial inclusion and poverty reduction as well as impact investing. He has supported many processing businesses in agricultural value chains such as moringa, tamarind, dawadawa and shea. Eric holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in social work and a Master’s of Science degree in development finance.

Desmond Opoku Agyemang has expertise in rural development, SME management, technical and vocational skills training, M&E frameworks, project planning and management in the agriculture, WASH, and food security sectors. He has experience in coordinating livelihoods empowerment programs which develop a trained and employable workforce. Desmond holds a Bachelor of business administration in human resource management (HRM).

All four staff went through our three-day Inclusive Business Toolkit training in their first week, of which they said they are now ‘well-prepared to use the tools’ and ‘ready to assist businesses to identify their needs, market and how to streamline operations’. They have now joined other MDF West Africa staff in working on assignments that will contribute to Ghana’s economic growth; so you might run in to them soon!

This article was written by Susanne Roelofsen, a trainer/consultant at MDF West Africa.